Saturday, May 18, 2013

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6 Tips for Shopping on Zulily

Over the past few months, I have been exploring the various opportunity shopping sites online. Although there are many such sites I have yet to visit, so far I have shopped on Zulily, MyHabit, Beyond the Rack, Rue La La, Totsy, Ideeli, and a couple of others. Of all of them, I have to say that Zulily is my favorite. I think it's because they offer top brands (but not necessarily designer and luxury brands) for clothing, shoes, and accessories for women and children. There are sometimes some great items for men too. There are also some great finds for home furnishings as well. Zulily's website also has a few features that other opportunity shopping sites do not offer.

For example, I bought the David Jones handbag pictured above on Zulily for just $26.99 plus $5.95 shipping, which ended up totaling about half of what the bag retailed for. I had actually seen this bag in the Peacock color on Zulily before, but it was sold out. So I put my name in on the waiting list and, about a month later, I received an email saying that the bag was available in the color I wanted again. I was thrilled! I've made many other purchases on Zulily and have never been disappointed. That's why I want to share what I've learned about shopping on Zulily with 3G2S readers . . .

1.Shop on the weekends for the best selection. On Zulily, you only pay shipping once per calendar day Monday through Thursday. That means, if you buy one thing on Tuesday, you will have free shipping on everything else you buy through midnight PST on that Tuesday. However, when you shop on the weekends (Friday through Sunday), you only pay shipping once for all 3 of those days. That way, you get to shop the sales that are ending, still going, and just starting on that Friday, as well as all the new sales that start on Saturday and on Sunday.

2.Checkout right away when you find something you love. Since an item is only officially being held for you after you've begun the checkout process AND you only pay shipping on the first item, there is no reason to wait to checkout if you find something you really want. You can always continue shopping after you checkout for the first item. There is nothing worse than going to checkout to find that something you really wanted has been removed from your cart because it was sold to someone else.

3.Use the search box. There is a search box on the upper right corner of the Zulily website. Since there are more sales going on than are shown on the front page, I have found the search box to be wonderfully helpful. You can type in anything, like "owls", "acrylic tumblers", tote bags, "boys size 10", or "Star Wars", and it will bring up every item available that fits your search.

4.Enter your email to be notified when an item comes back in stock. For some items, Zulily will ask you if you would like to be notified when the item becomes available again in the color and/or size you were looking for. You should always put your email in. You won't always receive an email with a second chance to purchase, but I have received those emails on a few items, like the handbag pictured above. You can always decide you no longer want or need the item by ignoring the email. If you do still want the item, however, you should make the purchase as soon as possible. If it sold out the last time, then it will likely sell out this time as well.

5.Shop the Ready to Ship items if you're in a hurry. Some items take quite awhile to ship. I believe once the sale is over, then the manufacturer ships the items to Zulily, who in turn ships the items to their customers. I've had some items arrive within a week, but others have taken a few weeks to arrive. If you are shopping for a gift or something to wear to an event, you should shop from the Ready to Ship items. You can find them under the "Shop By Category" tab.

6."Heart" your favorite brands. You can click on most of the brand links to go to that brand's page on Zulily. Then click the heart to favorite that brand. By doing this, you will receive an email notification the day before that brand will be featured on Zulily.

If you have any tips of your own for shopping on Zulily, please do share them in a comment below. If you are visiting Zulily for the first time, then I would love it if you would come back and tell me what you thought of it.